Last time I wrote something about this blog, how I moved everything to Jekyll and modified the original themes.

Then Ian tweeted about that issue that I had with the fonts, that the blog looked differently when viewed on a PC or a Mac. And he also added that embedding fonts was easy.

So I looked around and in fact it was easy; more importantly, there’s plenty of open source fonts made available by Google. What was not easy was to decide which combination of fonts to use.

If somebody would actually read these posts he’d start thinking something like “what a loser”.

Here I am, a fairly old git, waiting for his first baby, with too many things to do at work (and off-work), losing precious sleep hours to relocate his blog on GitHub.

And what the hell is GitHub, asks the non-geek. Well, GitHub is basically a VCS (Version Control Systems¹) that allows programmers and hackers to exchange and host their coding efforts; but it does more than that, such as the possibility to host also personal blogs for free.

A comment on Italians’ ability to manage confusion:

the Italians broke the laws of physics and created instant order out of utter disorder and chaos. We were waved and whistled by the police, straight through to the start area.

About cyclists (especially roadies) shaving their legs:

In fact, it was based on sound principles of physics and human anatomy, where the hairs help in a small way to allow the evaporation of sweat, which takes energy from the surrounding skin to do so. I was always hit by arguments like about how unhygienic it was and how much better a shaved leg would be. But I had read that shaved skin was more likely to suffer infection, which just left the questions about aerodynamics, aesthetics and conforming to my peer group.

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Inspired by Pindelski’s blog¹ here’s my first collection of snaps, something that I’ll try to honour as a weekly appointment.

There will not be a common theme or anything like that, and I cannot promise to post new snaps every week (most of the times I have a feeling that it will be stuff from my archive).

What you will find in here is photos that I have taken and that I want to hold on to for whatever reason I may have. And the fact of publishing them online is an act that makes them prominent, and gives them the recognition which I feel they deserve in that particular moment when I sit down and write.

A short recap on how to build and install open mtb maps under OS X.

Essentially, a shorter version of the detailed instructions given on mtb-forum.it, written for my own convenience – but I thought somebody could find it useful especially to see the result of using different ‘styles’.

##tools

• gmapbuilder: to convert the OpenMtbMaps into the .gmapi format.
• MapInstall/MapManager to install the .gmapi files into the system, ready to be used by Basecamp and/or copied into a Garmin gps.
• Basecamp (also available on the AppStore): the main application to view and plan routes.

##data ##

I was very happy about my hackintosh, everything going smooth and easy… until it all broke down and I was left with no computer for almost a month.

And what was even stranger was that also Filippo’s hackintosh, built at the same time as mine, went down only a few days after mine. If computers were organic, I would have thought about some sort of mortal sickness.

Ok let me say that there’s a happy ending to this story: the motherboards were not dead but only in a coma. It was necessary to reinstall the bios and use an external graphic card to redirect the display because for some reasons the integrated HD3000 gpus were not working.

This is so good it’s a shame it lies forgotten in an old issue of DirtRag.

Source: DirtRag issue 145, october 2009.

A 1945 video on Raleigh bicycles, worth watching for historical reasons but also for something that the speaker says towards the end of the movie (around the 16'45" mark):

[…] There are bicycles for all purposes, suitable for men, women boys and girls. A bycicle is a comfortable and cheap way of getting about, a great boon to men, ideal for shopping, easy to park […] A faithful friend ever ready to take tired workers back home and after work to bring relaxation, health and happiness.

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I used to love macstories.

It’s edited by a fellow italian who writes excellent english (unlike the rest of us), and it was a place to read reasoned commentaries that I enjoyed.

But lately, like most of the other tech blogs, it has changed to a collection of commentaries on brainless apps, such as: twitter clients, calendar and reminder apps, plain-text editors. I’m the first one to acknowledge the importance of simple apps to make our everyday life easier, and in fact I’ve been using Simplenote and NValt for ages. But come on, do we really need to read and review shitloads of stupid apps to keep track of menial tasks? To write using fucking Helvetica? Yet another app to see what the hell I’m supposed to do today or to share crappily filtered photos?

And so I have waited a long time for a new macmini to replace my old one¹. Apple did have something for me in the store, which was the 2011 server version with Intel Core i7, but it was definitely too expensive (€1000 with 4Gb of ram and not even an SSD or a GPU?).

The reason why I wanted a faster computer? Mainly because of Aperture – too damned slow (and the Nikon D7000’s 16Mp files didn’t help either). Having a snappier machine to do some iMovie editing was an added bonus, but apart from that I must say that everyday tasks² are still handled perfectly by my even slower Macbook Air 1.4ghz – a proof that a computer ‘feels’ fast not because of the cpu but because you replaced that clunky old drive with an SSD.

If you have love of photography and are a dreamy nerd enamored of Asimov’s books, you really need to read this; it’s an account by a NASA astronaut about the daily experiences of shooting photographs in space:

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/locations/photography_in_space.shtml

So true:

Reading fiction is important. It is a vital means of imagining a life other than our own, which in turn makes us more empathetic beings. Following complex story lines stretches our brains beyond the 140 characters of sound-bite thinking, and staying within the world of a novel gives us the ability to be quiet and alone, two skills that are disappearing faster than the polar icecaps.

Ann Patchett, from yesterday’s New York Times.

I’m a believer now: with an iPhone (4S) and a nice cool application such as Snapseed, you can really get good shots. I hesitate to call them ‘artistic’ even if other people may do so. That’s not art to replicate the look of a heavily pushed Kodak Tri-X, but they are cool nonetheless.

I should write something more about Snapseed, how this approach to photo editing is perfect for an iPhone. I was one of those nerds who like to endlessly play with Curves, so my philosophy has always been that you need to work hard to improve a shot, and the idea of applying an automatic adjuster-thingy was never considered.

A Bologna c’è troppa gente in giro.

La cucina è quella semplice che a me piace; da Annamaria ho gustato delle tagliatelle buone come quelle che mangiai quando venni la prima volta qui, in occasione di un Motorshow assieme a Francesco (la sua fidanzata, poi diventata moglie, si chiama Annamaria, e sono sempre rimasto col dubbio in testa se fosse venuta prima Annamaria la trattoria, o Annamaria la fidanzata).

Yesterday evening I had the idea of taking a few shots during this special edition of Critical Mass Milano (special because it was the 10th year anniversary). It’s carnival time too so I figured there would have been good photo opportunities.

But I have a huge backlog of photos to check, catalog and process, so the last thing I wanted was to have another batch of photos waiting to be checked, catalogued and processed.